VANCOUVER — Cobi Falconer single-handedly paid down the mortgage on her Vancouver condo while also paying tuition for four university degrees and working numerous jobs simultaneously.

Some 17 years after she bought the studio space in the trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood at the age of 23 — with some down-payment help from her father — Falconer is proudly mortgage-free.

“It was a very rewarding experience, it’s all part of growing and learning and maturing,” says the 39-year-old archivist, who took on two full-time serving jobs during the summer and added co-operative and teaching assistant gigs during her grad school years.

“As a young person investing early it just made so much sense to not have to put money towards rent, it’s like investing in yourself.”

Census data released last week by Statistics Canada show that, for the first time, there are more people living alone in Canada than there are couples with children. One-person households now make up 27.6 per cent of all homes, a three-fold increase since 1961.

Many Canadians are getting into the market on their own as low mortgage rates make ownership easier to finance and young people stay in school longer, get married later in life — or not at all — while baby boomers settle down on their own after a split.